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For many of the guests who attended Kimi and Salvo’s wedding, the scene above is probably one of their first memory of the wedding. As someone who had hung out with Kimi and the Salvo and their families the whole morning as well as the rehearsal the night before, I was still in total shock at how beautiful it was to see her parents walked their only child down the aisle. For the out of town guests that have not seen Kimi in a while, I cannot possibly imagine the pride and joy they must have felt. I mean, I have been to a few weddings and it’s always fun because everyone is always so happy but to photograph some of the happiest moment in the life of a close friend, that is quite a surreal experience.

Oh and just before I go on, I have to mention that this wedding took place in Austin, TX not Connecticut, just so all of my friends in Connecticut don’t go asking where in CT is all of this lol.

So for everyone who was not able to attend the morning session at the hair salon, let me explain what happen:

This is very typical of Kimi, she always enjoy life to the fullest! Even posed for me at 9:00 in the morning lol. Oh and Kimi even brought dumplings for her hair stylist that morning.

Kimi with her Maid of Honor, Wen. One thing about wedding guests is that you never know how far someone had travel to be there and it always fascinating to me where people come from. Wen is one of Kimi’s roommates while they were in New York City.

Long story short, the hair is done and now we’re hanging out at home🙂 These father/daughter moments are always my favorite to photograph.

Last minute DIY🙂

I don’t really know if this method really work…..

You really get to catch a lot of beautiful moments during a wedding.

Kimi getting her make up done by one of her awesome friend in Austin. This scene for some reason reminds me of Memoir of a Geisha lol.

Putting the veil on is a much scarier than it look. You really have to commit to pushing the pin down even mean if it means scratching her head lol🙂

Kimi and Dad.

Like I have said from the very beginning, even though I witnessed all the preparations leading up to the ceremony, I still cannot believe how beautiful everything was.

Salvo’s parents walking down the aisle to start the ceremony.

The Maid of Honor made her entrance.

Salvo with his Best Man and brother, Vincenzo awaited patiently as the bride was about to make her entrance.

Similar to the first photo in the blog, this is the first time anyone really saw the bride in her wedding gown, including Salvo! Even though I saw every single part of the process that morning, I was really stunned how beautiful she looked as she walked down the aisle.

Making vows with close friends and family as witnesses.

Mr. and Mrs. Galati!!!!! Below are a few glamour photos of the couple just right after the ceremony.

Nicole, Kimi, and Wen. Nicole flew down from Philadelphia to be there for the wedding. I love it when I see people go so far to be there for their friends. In a sense, a wedding is like a big family reunion and you want to have the photo commemorate the reunion.

The beginning of the receptions as guests are coming in.

Trouble makers🙂

Salvo’s dad made a speech wishing the couple well.

I still remember Kimi’s speech almost exactly from that day since it just show the strength of her character. She stated that (and I am paraphrasing) ever since both parents came over to the United States for the wedding, they have to deal with all kind of problems and frustrations associated with language barriers and therefore she did not feel that her guests should have the privilege of understanding everything; therefore the speeches would not translated into English. If you think about it, it’s their son and daughter who are getting married, it’s our responsibility to understand them rather than the other way around.

And let’s be honest, you just cannot translate this kind of emotion from one language to another. You don’t need to either.

Salvo’s best man and younger brother made a toast to the newly wedded couple in broken English🙂 (I’m just kidding Vincenzo)

Wen said could not speak any English but she could read English just fine🙂

Kimi and Salvo’s wedding is so far the second wedding that I photographed for a friend and the experience is very very surreal. Doing something that you love has always been fun and I am very fortunate to be able to do something that I love. Doing something that you love for your love ones is a very neat experience. As with all the wonderful couples that I have photographed, a heartfelt congratulation to Kimi and Salvo and I know that when they revisit their photo album from time to time, they will remember all those wonderful moments with friends and families from near and far as well those precious moments they shared with each other on that very very special day.

You know, this is a strange blog to write because this particular blog is not really about the photos. But we are on a photography blog and we did spend a good 2.5 hours photographing this beautiful couple so I guess I better have something to show for it. Usually, couples take engagement photos to commemorate a more innocent time in their relationship, perhaps to later show it to their children and say “See, we once were cool too!”

But for Kimi and Salvo, this experience is much more about the union of their families since both families have to travel so far to be there for them. Being a good friend with both of them made me feel like we were just on a family outing taking photos together to memorialize our trip. In a way, the photos doesn’t really matter, I was simply capturing my own memories. Looking back at this set of photos make me miss them so much!

Just a note, because I flew in to Austin, TX from Connecticut on a Wednesday, we did this photo session on Thursday, two days prior to the wedding. Clearly, if I were to live in Austin, we would have space it out better lol. I was actually there when Salvo proposed to Kimi; well, I was there a couple of days later but you can see the photos from that “session” here. It’s much more organic because NO ONE was prepared lol.

Special thanks to Laguna Gloria for letting us photographed on their beautiful ground and their staff were extremely helpful and friendly to us. Also, special thanks to Mount Bonnell for being only 500ft high as I wasn’t about to hike 4,000 feet to get a mountaintop finish photo🙂

By the way, Kimi’s dad is also a photographer I am really glad he came along because he help out with all the lighting!

I first met Sara in 4th or 5th grade when I first came to the United States and attended Southwest Elementary School in Torrington, Connecticut. Now that Sara is actor and singer and I am a photographer, our path crossed again as we get together for a headshot sessions for her upcoming shows and auditions.

When I travel down south, mostly to Texas, and I tell people that I am from Connecticut, everyone immediately think that I am in the Arctic region and that I must get to play Polar bears all day. For the most part, I think Connecticut’s winters are fairly mild. For one, we are not that far north, I mean we’re not in Canada yet. Two, we are reasonably close to the coast and the warm air from the Atlantic keep things pretty reasonable. The natural light in the winter is just absolutely beautiful and soft even though it is very short lived; the empty and somewhat desolate landscape also make for interesting backgrounds that can only be had in…..well, winter!

My friend, Sarah, and her husband Jack came home to visit Connecticut for Christmas break so I met up with for a quick photo-shoot with Sarah in her dress uniform. I saw photos of her dress online before the actual photo shoot but that dress looked a lot more amazing in real life. Oh and this was in 35 degrees weather so they were brave and I was quick!

Yeah it was sunny but not very warm🙂

I had a photoshoot with Tram right after Christmas! It was around 40 degrees for this session so it is still a bit chilly but she looks beautiful……so it’s all good!🙂

Rusty bridges and abandoned mill is one of the reason why I love New England! It look really nice in photos!

Cold can be beautiful too!!

Yeah, sometimes you don’t want any leaves on those trees for your portrait, it could be very distracting. In conclusion, winter is beautiful, stay warm everyone!!🙂

Special thanks to Cynthia Hauk from CYN PHOTO Wedding (www.cynphoto.com) for taking me on as her second photographer to this very neat and unique wedding at St. Clements Castle. Did I mentioned it was at a castle? Cynthia asked for me to come along to help out during the ceremony as well as the reception since there are always a lot of beautiful moments to capture. One of the reason I love wedding photography is because it is fast pace photojournalism capturing years and years of memories between friends and families that can only be together completely for a few short hours.

The biggest difference between the Nikon D600 and the D610 is that you have the option to go “wireless” when it comes to charging your Nikon EN-EL 15 battery. This is by far the biggest improvement that I can appreciate between the D600 and the D610 or any previous Nikon camera for that matter. Having a cord around is just to cumbersome at time. Everything else feel exactly…..well, the same :):) All the photos below were taken by my now third string back up crop sensor camera, the Nikon D90 along with my new Nikon 85mm f1.8 and Nikon 24-70 f2.8 as well as a couple of photos on my Nikon 50mm f1.8.

I have always had an image in my head of musicians playing their musical instruments out and about in nature as a way to relax and enjoy some fresh air; somehow I thought it was a neat concept for a photo project. Not being a musician myself, I am not sure how realistic or relaxing it really is to play your guitar or violin by a grand rapid or in the Amazon, but it’s the thought that count🙂 For this particular project, we have a Vietnamese Đàn Tranh which is one of the main instruments most often associated with Vietnamese traditional music. Given that the Đàn Tranh is strongly identify with traditional Vietnamese music, musicians often wear traditional Vietnamese áo dài for their performances. What I find most interesting is that since the project was photographed during the peak of New England autumn, it has somewhat of a traditional New England’s vibe to it and while I believe that this setting compliment the traditional nature of the Đàn Tranh, this is certainly new territory for Vietnamese tradional music. And no, we don’t have leaves falling all over the place and littering the countryside in Vietnam like the way we have it here in New England.

Special thanks to Chi for the beautiful modeling and more importantly for bringing back this beautiful instrument when she went to visit Vietnam quite a few years back. Can you imagine walking around with this thing for a couple of days at various international airport?

Special thanks to Travis Flynn Photography for signing me on as a second photographer for Katelyn and Hugh’s spectacular wedding. We started the day at the Omni New Haven Hotel, had church service at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Huntington and then back to the Omni New Haven Hotel for the reception. In the morning, I was responsible for the men’s getting ready photos which was awesome since that was where the ring bearer was. As a result, I essentially became his personal photographer for the day🙂

Now let the photos tell the story:

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Copyright by Hoan Trinh for Travis Flynn Photography

Katelyn and Hugh are also very talented musicians and actually went on stage to perform for their guests! Now that is one performance to remember! Congratulation to Katelyn and Hugh, best wishes to you guys!

Me:“Hey Kimi, since you’re getting married soon, you want to go around Austin for a little bit and get some bridal photos done while I am down here?”

Kimi:“hahahahahahaha, NO!!! I DON’T WANT YOU TO WORK WHILE YOU’RE DOWN HERE!! I mean, thank you for the offer, it’s very nice of you but I just want to hang out……..”

Me:“Yeah, I don’t want to work either…………………but can you wear something nice?”

Kimi:“hahaha, we’ll see”

* I live and work in Connecticut, but I was visiting family in Texas at the time.

I break photography down into two broad categories: one category of photography make a statement with regard to the subjects in the photograph, the other category preserve the memories that have pass through the interpretation of the photographer. For example, a couple of years earlier, I went on a business trip with Kimi to Philadelphia. It was our third time in the city over the course of 8 months. Since Kimi was an international student from China, I thought it would be a great idea to do a series of portraits of her in Philadelphia to commemorate her time in the City of Brotherly Love. Who knows when she will be back again? Beside, her parents would be ecstatic to see photos of their daughter enjoying life in a city literally on the other side of the Earth. Really, with just the simple idea that some mom and dad in China might really enjoy seeing their daughter who is far from home, that became my goal for the photoshoot in Philadelphia. You can see some of the photos in this post.

Fast forward a few years and the conversation above, even though Kimi do not want to spend time to do an actual photoshoot and she is right as we have a lot of catching up to do, I still wanted to captured at least one good photograph of her at her happiest moment. Remember how I told her to wear something nice? Yeah….you’ll see hahaha🙂

P.S: To view the image in better detail, please click on the actual photo itself.

Enjoying a drink at a local coffee shop. That pink lemonade is actually mine, but it matched with her shirt so I let her borrow it🙂

Pointing at random things that does not exist🙂

Noticed how many photos we pull sitting still in one place?

Still didn’t go anywhere :)

The drink that Kimi stole from me, it kind of match her shirt🙂

Then we went to see a World War II reenactment since it was Memorial Day.

One more with the Jeep.

Photo credit: Kimi Shao. No other explanation necessary.

And then we saw this awesome wall that we had to take photo with, it was located right at her old apartment….

One more with the wall.

One “artsy” shot and that was it. I think this whole thing took 15 minutes? Definitely not the typical engagement photos and we probably need to redo this in a more formal settings but the moments are as genuine as they get🙂

Engagement sessions along with bridal portraits are some of the most beautiful and fun photographic experience that I have been apart of. You always have two extremely happy (not to mention excited) people who are willing to play Hollywood with you for a few hour and let you push your artistic boundary as much as possible. That, for a portrait photographer, is nirvana.

Now Moondeep and Krisha’s engagement session is even more special since it also include some traditional Nepalese clothing. When Moondeep told me that Krisha would be wearing a Saree for the first part of the photo-shoot, I was quite ecstatic since it would be something very different and could look quite interesting with both modern architectures as well as more traditional settings. With that in mind, we set off to the Wadworth Mansion, where Moondeep and Krisha will be married in November.

Note: If you clicked on the image, you will be able to see a higher resolution version.

I always start out with a simple portrait, both in composition and posing, just to get everyone relax, including myself lol. And sometime simple work out the best so it is a win win situation🙂

I love artificial lighting and use it quite a bit in my photography. I mean I love natural light too when it is available, my final delivered images always includes some very diverse styles of photography.

We stay with these trees for a little while, just to make sure that we get everything we needed.

I love the catch lights in her eyes.

The sun went away for exactly 5 seconds and voila….you get a fairly different image🙂

I don’t know why, but I really really really image. If you can explain why you like something, you probably don’t like it that much🙂

Finally, we are out the wood🙂 The Wadworth Mansion definitely has a very interesting facade to work with.

We had a lot of jokes off camera, this one is on camera🙂 lol

I love the way she smile in this photo🙂

We decided to end the photo session at the beach with more “traditional” modern clothing🙂